http://frethink.com You can afford to think. It's free. Thu, 11 Feb 2010 05:11:57 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Image by † David Gunter via Flickr Does the universe have an end, is there a literal and physical end to the universe? Or is the universe persistent and infinite? If finite, what lies beyond the boundaries of this universe? I don't know. Not only do I not know, the sources I ... http://frethink.com/2010/02/10/i-dont-know/ Image by Dave Cross via Flickr Back in September of 2009 I posted a story here regarding the pending deportation of an individual to his home country, a country that still lives by social codes common to the 1st century. Had he been deported he faced execution for apostasy. Laws against ... http://frethink.com/2010/01/14/a-moral-dilemma/ Image by kolix via FlickrIn 1963 Martin Luther King made his famous "I have a dream" speech. Two years later many of those who shared his dream rioted for six days in Watts. What happened, what changed? Nothing. And that was the problem. Those who heard King's speech and wanted to share ... http://frethink.com/2009/12/25/america-land-of-lost-dreams/ [caption id="" align="alignright" width="202" caption="Image via Wikipedia"][/caption] There's an interesting write-up and video at Edge on the nature of consciousness. From the introduction: On October 17, Edge organized a Reality Club meeting at The Hotel Ritz in Paris to allow neuroscientist Stanislas Dehaene to present his new theory on how consciousness arises ... http://frethink.com/2009/12/06/consciousness-edge/ If you only listen to politicians or prophets, the end of the world will come about dramatically, and according to many, soon. We are told to expect either wars in the heavens with gods battling gods over the fate of humanity or wars between nations involving nuclear weapons and mad ... http://frethink.com/2009/11/23/the-end-of-humanity-no-gods-or-guns-required/ [caption id="" align="alignright" width="180" caption="Image via Wikipedia"][/caption] Another sign that intelligence and an education are becoming a liability in our society. A US man has been rejected in his bid to become a police officer for scoring too high on an intelligence test. Robert Jordan, a 49-year-old college graduate, took an exam to ... http://frethink.com/2009/11/08/no-intelligence-required/ In an effort to rebuild our relationship with the United Nations, a effort that is being questioned by many Americans, the Obama administration has chosen to support an agenda that contradicts our own Constitution. The United States has backed a new UN resolution on free expression which would be considered unconstitutional ... http://frethink.com/2009/10/25/blasphemy-dangerous-or-necessary/ [caption id="" align="alignright" width="150" caption="Image by Getty Images via Daylife"][/caption] "What do you want to be when you grow up?" A fireman, nurse, policeman, soldier, spy, ballerina, pilot, astronaut, but mostly, especially, grown up. We want to stop being children and become adults. Even children use "childish" as a pejorative.  Adults are responsible, ... http://frethink.com/2009/10/11/adulthood-is-no-fun/ Image by Martha★ via Flickr ♦Lane Wallace, writing for The Atlantic, gives us two articles on the process of thinking that deserve further consideration: In my experience, there are two factors that seem to make the biggest difference as to whether or not two people can have a meaningful ... http://frethink.com/2009/10/02/on-thinking/ It's a natural instinct to recognize those most similar to yourself and consider those too different to be outsiders, in a sense. There's sexism because we are aware of the differences between the sexes (straights get mad at gays because gays mess up the visual clues we all rely on ... http://frethink.com/2009/09/07/racism-its-not-what-you-think/